Category: Michael D
Dancing Problems
Progress is a trade
It’s easy to imagine that over there, just a few steps ahead, our problems will disappear.
Pessimists, of course, are sure that instead of disappearing, tomorrow will make things worse.
The truth is pretty simple: All we do, all we ever do, is trade one set of problems for another.
Problems are a feature. They’re the opportunity to see how we can productively move forward. Not to a world with no problems at all, but to a situation with different problems, ones that are worth dancing with.
Seth Godin, July 28, 2021
In my sermons this past four months I’ve noted that some of us are thinking about “getting back to normal” or “back to before.” Maybe “before” wasn’t nearly as good as we think it was or as meaningful as “right now” is or tomorrow might be. I don’t consider myself an optimist. Some might call me a pessimist. I think I’m a realists, but let’s quibble over labels another day.
Covid-19 forced most of us into situations we never wanted to be in and decisions we never wanted to make. It presented me(us) with opportunities to reflect on how I am living. Where did I spend my time and to what or whom did I give my attention. Was that good for me? Was that good for my family, friends, and my following Jesus?
The coronavirus did the same thing to the institutions, myths, and stories we rely upon, support, and participate in that act as a compass for our lives. It continues to do so. It’s the hardest thing: to decide what problems are opportunities worthy of attention and which ones just distract and nag, willingly or not, from meaningful living and helping our neighbors.
One thing that Covid-19 has made clearer for me is that being super busy doesn’t mean one is successful. It may mean we are over functioning or are workaholics or are fearful of idle time. It may mean that one doesn’t have the clarity to say “no” to the less important or the filters to sift important from unimportant in the short term and long term. And, it could mean that one has focused on the very important for their lives and kicked into hyperdrive.
I don’t know if church, youth group, Christianity, or following Jesus, any or all, are important for you. They may be problems worth dancing with.
May God’s shalom find you and may you live in God’s shalom.
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch: Snippets from Sunday’s Words
I was gifted the pulpit at First Christian Church in Nowata on July 11th. Their minister, Rev. Elizabeth, like many clergy, decided that with the pandemic under “better” control, at least within her congregation, that it was time to take a couple weeks off. I always thank a congregation for gifting their minister time away. Most have vacation time in their “letter of call,” but few actually take off all the time they negotiated. It reminds me of what my preaching professor, Rev. Dr. Joey Jeter, once said of being a minister. “Ministry is one of those vocations where you can be a workaholic or a loafer.” I offered this thought during my opening words.
Thank you for gifting your minister time away. Like many of her colleagues Elizabeth added producer, director, sound engineer, lighting engineer, key grip (whatever that is), and editor to her role in ministry as well as preacher, teacher, pastor, and prophet. Ministers are exhausted and most days it is not that “good” exhaustion. Some think of faith or the call of God as insulation from doubt, fear, or life’s troubles. I’ve listened to many clergy express their concerns and doubts about their skill and their call since the pandemic.
The text for Sunday’s sermon was Acts 8:26-40. It is that odd little story about Philip and an Ethiopian eunuch. I had never preached this text, so it was a new experience for me. My companion, as always, was a helpful sounding board and editor. What follows are snippets that represent the core of my words.
During the pandemic, I’ve come to think that faith is a responsibility and obligation that often makes me the student even when I think I’m the teacher. I’ve been watching for reciprocity in a Nation awash in transactional polarization.
And like Philip in this odd story in Acts, on this side Jesus’ story, we have opportunities to mentor, to teach, too include and too exclude, to learn, and practice a citizenship not based in birth, consumerism, political, state or National boundaries. It’s a citizenship based in the reign of God and the way of Jesus.
One way to think of Acts is to imagine that somewhere in the distant future a new group of Christians, that are meeting in someone’s pod on the moon, are trying to organize a new church and they are given twenty years of board minutes from First Christian Church Nowata to use as a guide. You don’t get to choose what 20 years they get.
This story about Philip happens right after the stoning of Stephen and just before Saul’s metamorphosis to Paul. There are different themes to draw out of this story about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch that are all worthy of our attention.
- A deacon serving beyond the set boundaries
- Insiders and Outsiders
- Outcast based on Sexual Identity Welcomed as Worthy Child of God just as they are
- Recognizing the voice of God
- Teacher and Student or Mentor and Mentee
- Baptism is an outward sign of an inward decision
- And the most popular is evangelism.
Followers of the Way are being persecuted by a guy named Saul. Some are taken to prison. Some, like Stephen, are killed. And even still, some of the Apostles and a few others, like Philip, continue to travel around telling their stories about Jesus. And in Philip’s case, because he was named a deacon, he was probably making sure everyone was fed as well. His story helps time pass and alters the course of Acts as it turns from an internal evangelism and conflict story into a splintered missionary adventure. Frustrated, followers of the Way turn their attention outward and carry their stories about Jesus to anyone that will listen, even Gentiles.
His (Philips) story helps time pass and alters the course of Acts as it turns from an internal evangelism and conflict story into a splintered missionary adventure. Frustrated, followers of the Way turn their attention outward and carry their stories about Jesus to anyone that will listen, even Gentiles.
And this is where we must take great care. This text, like many in the New Testament, can lead down a path to Christian supersessionism or anti-Semitism. Christian tradition has read its experience of Jesus back into the Hebrew bible (Old Testament) as if trying to unlock clues to a riddle of God’s salvation story. In doing so, some of our siblings in faith throughout the centuries, and even today, project a religious superiority of Christianity over Judaism or any other religious faith tradition. The history of this theological superiority complex has led to all kinds of violence and death, discrimination, and dehumanizing behavior. In his book, Thinking Through Our Faith: Theology for 21st Century Christians, Dr. David Grant puts it this way. “Early Christianity became a missionary faith, competing with other faiths in the Roman world. It evolved rapidly into an exclusive message of salvation.”
And when I see that kind of Christianity in history or in the headlines of our historical context or spinning through channels on my TV or hear that kind of Christianity it on my car radio, I always wonder how Jesus’ expansive story about God’s love becomes so small, so limiting, so set on dominance. Read the gospels. That is not Jesus’ way.
Think for a moment about a time when someone helped you explore the scripture and your journey in faith. Really, take a moment. Who is that person for you?
When I think of Philip in this story I recall the book, The Wounded Healer, by Henri Nouwen. The Wounded Healer was required reading for undergraduate religion majors when I was a TCU student. This was and remains an important book for my understanding of what ministry and ministering is all about. I struggled with it at first and still do from time to time. But, Dr. Bryan Feile sat with me all those years ago, and helped me to being to understand. I think this book could be eyeopening to anyone following Jesus.
The book begins with: “Nothing can be written about ministry without a deeper understanding of the ways in which the minister can make their own wounds available as a source of healing.”
And it ends with this: ”When the imitation of Christ does not mean to live your life like Christ, but to live your life as authentically as Christ lived his, then there are many ways and forms that a person can be a Christian.”
That’s what Philip was doing that day on a wilderness road. You’ve probably done that too.